`Urinetown' is canceled

Urinetown has gone down the drain. The Baltimore run of the hit Broadway musical has been canceled due to low ticket sales.

It was to have played the Lyric Opera House Dec. 29-Jan. 4 as part of the new Broadway Show Club series. Ticket sales were running only $2,500-$3,000 a day since the on-sale date, Nov. 16, said William W. Becker, chairman of TheatreDreams, which created the series.

He said the advance sale from club members, who pay $35 to receive ticket discounts and priority seating, was only $70,000- $75,000, versus $500,000 in Boston and $300,000 in Minneapolis.

The cancellation is particularly disappointing for TheatreDreams because the company is among the producers of the Broadway show. A quirky satire about a corrupt town where bathroom privileges come at a cost, it won 2002 Tony Awards for best book, score and direction. It ends its two-year Broadway run on Jan. 18.

Urinetown is the second show to be canceled in the Broadway Show Club's inaugural five-show season. The Will Rogers Follies, slated to open the series in July, was withdrawn so as not to conflict with a simultaneous community theater revival. Instead, the Show Club series began with Chicago in October. "We're still very enthusiastic," said Becker, whose company will present Nunsense and Oliver! later this season. "It's going to be a long-term effort on our part."